SGX Nifty, the
exchange-traded futures contract on Singapore's Nifty 50 index, switched to
GIFT Nifty on Monday. Accordingly, all open positions in SGX have been moved to
Gift City. The relocation will give impetus to the development of GIFT City
into a true international financial hub. If we could also find a way to easily
invest NRIs in India via GIFT, I think we can attract a lot of capital. Due to
the cumbersome processes, many NRIs sit on the fence and do not invest in
India. Currently, the NRI account opening process includes notarization of
embassy documents, opening of PIS bank accounts and thereafter, the Withholding
Tax (TDS) is applicable to any sales transaction. If there were a way to
relax some of these requirements, GIFT would be far more popular. The move from
SGX Nifty completely settles a five year old feud between NSE and the Singapore
Exchange over their plan to introduce single share futures trading on shares of
some of India's largest companies as India sought to develop its equity market.
The dispute was settled amicably after a brief legal battle. We expect the
liquidity pool to grow as all orders from Singapore are routed to our platform
while local brokers can also trade from IFSC. Gift Nifty will be available for
almost 21 hours. and it overlaps with trading hours in Asia, Europe and the US.
It is open in two sessions from 6.30am to 3.40pm and in the second session
again from 4.35pm to 2.45am. In addition to Gift Nifty, NSE IX will also
have Gift Nifty Bank, Gift Nifty Financial Services and Gift Nifty IT
derivative contracts and plans to gradually launch other indices later.
